Each week I get two or three requests for design work. They come sometimes from contacts, but more often than not they come from random people. Sometimes they even come from web-famous people or well-known companies. What is interesting about this though is that I no longer freelance, advertise for work or even have a portfolio.
Actually it can be pretty hard to contact me, though I did finally put up a little website for myself two weeks ago.
Although these days I turn away all this work, for some years I did in fact work as a freelance designer and happily always had more work than I could do – despite being inclined to overwork.
So how do you get web design jobs? Or any other type of job? Here are some things that have worked for me.

Each week I get two or three requests for design work. They come sometimes from contacts, but more often than not they come from random people. Sometimes they even come from web-famous people or well-known companies. What is interesting about this though is that I no longer freelance, advertise for work or even have a portfolio.
Actually it can be pretty hard to contact me, though I did finally put up a little website for myself two weeks ago.
Although these days I turn away all this work, for some years I did in fact work as a freelance designer and happily always had more work than I could do – despite being inclined to overwork.
So how do you get web design jobs? Or any other type of job? Here are some things that have worked for me.Read More…

Part guesswork, part experience, part number crunching - how ever you look at it, determining your price is a difficult task. Here are nine factors to take into consideration when pricing your services:
1. Your Costs
If your rate doesn't include enough just to break-even, you're heading for trouble. The best thing to do is sum up all your costs and divide by the number of hours you think you can bill a year. Whatever you do, DON'T think you can bill every hour. You must account for sick days, holidays, hours working on the business, hours with no work and so on.
Also make sure you factor in all the hidden costs of your business like insurance, invoices that never get paid for one reason or another, and everyone's favourite - taxes.
2. Your Profit
Somewhat related to your costs, you should always consider how much money you are trying to make above breaking even. This is business after all.
3. Market Demand
If what you do is in high demand, then you should be aiming to make your services more expensive. Conversely if there's hardly any work around, you'll need to cheapen up if you hope to compete.
Signs that demand is high include too much work coming in, other freelancers being overloaded and people telling you they've been struggling to find someone to do the job. Signs that demand is low include finding yourself competing to win jobs, a shortage of work and fellow freelancers reentering the workforce.

Part guesswork, part experience, part number crunching - how ever you look at it, determining your price is a difficult task. Here are nine factors to take into consideration when pricing your services:
1. Your Costs
If your rate doesn't include enough just to break-even, you're heading for trouble. The best thing to do is sum up all your costs and divide by the number of hours you think you can bill a year. Whatever you do, DON'T think you can bill every hour. You must account for sick days, holidays, hours working on the business, hours with no work and so on.
Also make sure you factor in all the hidden costs of your business like insurance, invoices that never get paid for one reason or another, and everyone's favourite - taxes.
2. Your Profit
Somewhat related to your costs, you should always consider how much money you are trying to make above breaking even. This is business after all.
3. Market Demand
If what you do is in high demand, then you should be aiming to make your services more expensive. Conversely if there's hardly any work around, you'll need to cheapen up if you hope to compete.
Signs that demand is high include too much work coming in, other freelancers being overloaded and people telling you they've been struggling to find someone to do the job. Signs that demand is low include finding yourself competing to win jobs, a shortage of work and fellow freelancers reentering the workforce.Read More…

Working as a contractor--or freelancing as it is often termed--is both a great stepping stone to running your own business and a viable career in itself. For the uninitiated, there can be numerous hurdles to overcome on the way to starting and having a successful freelancing career.
As a former freelancer myself and having employed more than a few, I have observed some of these hurdles firsthand. This article discusses some of the ins and outs of both freelancing and running a small business.
This article is also available in French. Pour nos chers lecteurs de la langue Francaise, je suis heureux de vous informer que vous pouvez lire une traduction complete de cet article: Le guide complet du débutant freelance.

Working as a contractor--or freelancing as it is often termed--is both a great stepping stone to running your own business and a viable career in itself. For the uninitiated, there can be numerous hurdles to overcome on the way to starting and having a successful freelancing career.
As a former freelancer myself and having employed more than a few, I have observed some of these hurdles firsthand. This article discusses some of the ins and outs of both freelancing and running a small business.
This article is also available in French. Pour nos chers lecteurs de la langue Francaise, je suis heureux de vous informer que vous pouvez lire une traduction complete de cet article: Le guide complet du débutant freelance.Read More…

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top Photos &amp; Retouching work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top Photos & Retouching work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!Read More…

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top Flash website work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top Flash website work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!Read More…

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top work from a selection of Mobile Interface Inspiration - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top work from a selection of Mobile Interface Inspiration - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!Read More…

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top Vector work- and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top Vector work- and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!Read More…

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top Photoshop work as well as a few PSD Freebies - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top Photoshop work as well as a few PSD Freebies - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!Read More…

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's work in the WordPress Freebies category - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's work in the WordPress Freebies category - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!Read More…

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top HTML/CSS work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top HTML/CSS work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!Read More…

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top UI work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top UI work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!Read More…

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top 3D work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

It's a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It's quite the site!
But that's not all, let's first take a look at some of Creattica's top 3D work - and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!Read More…